Pom Pom

I have been working on blank journals probably for charity sale on the upcoming peace fair ‘08. This is pom pom kraft paper cover notebook with 40 pages prototype I gave to friends to try and comment. 

Filed under: Security

Aree Quits, Sonthi May Be In?

A retried is not a retired at all as Sonthi may smoothly step in in place of Aree Wonggaraya, according to The Nation

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said in New York yesterday he would offer a Cabinet post to utilise Sonthi, who is due to retire on Sunday.
“The chairman of the Council for National Security will have nothing to do when he retires from the Army’s top job [at the end of this month]. I will ask him if he’s interested in the portfolio for security affairs,” he told reporters.
The premier said he did not think a move to bring Sonthi into the government would create a perception his administration was under the influence of the Council for National Security (CNS).

Quoting Sulayud Chulanont as saying from New York, he did not want to “create a perception that his administration was under the influence of the CNS.” I say it would be difficult to him to create that perception, because of the shadowy figure remained interviewed and asked for political opinion despite not being the Premier or one in the actual cabinet (but he was featured in the cabinet meeting).

Probabbly by setting Sonthi in the cabinet, the Premier would be able to exert his authority over what the CNS chief would say to the press as a member of the cabinet.

Well, is Surayud joking? I hope so.

Filed under: Political Sciences

Blackwater Ordered Out of Iraq

yesterday, several links in my inbox reported that the Iraqi government order explusion of Blackwater, a private security company working as protector for diplomats and westerners in the Green zones.

The Guardian reported:

The ministry of interior yesterday took the decision to expel Blackwater after eight Iraqi civilians were killed and 13 wounded in Baghdad when shots were fired from a US state department convoy on Sunday.

Diplomats, engineers and other westerners in Iraq rely heavily on protection by Blackwater. The Iraqi decision created confusion on the ground, with uncertainty over whether protection was still available and whether Blackwater staff should leave the country immediately.

Ms Rice called the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to apologise for the shooting. They agreed to run a “fair and transparent investigation”, according to a statement from Mr Maliki’s office.
It added: “She has expressed her personal apologies and the apologies of the government of the United States. She confirmed that the United Sates will take immediate actions to prevent such actions from happening again.”

The office did not specify whether the apology was sufficient to reverse the expulsion decision.

The gap between the have and the have not start to be filled in by local communities as AP also publishes a photo of “A private security guard paid for by the Shiite community”

Obviously the security development in the “Green” zones would not offer the first priority to Iraqi, as it is reported that Blackwater, which is paid for by the US government to protect westerners, according to the Guardian, put Iraqi civilains at risk. What other Iraqi who are also at risk like the Shiite communities that could not afford protection from military depolyed to Iraq will have to adapt hiring their own private security guards. The question of not enough troops deployed is noto avail. Troops distribution to protect civilians in Iraq are probably less important than troops to protect some national interests.

By the way, I hope if they were out of iraq, they will not seek job in the South of Thailand.

Filed under: INTERNATIONAL, Security, cut and paste from somewhere else

Professional Army?

Thank you to Bangkok Pundit who dug this from Washington Post

The country is in its best uncertainty mode. No one know if there will be an election, the martial law lifted or there will be a truly democratic process.

One thing I am quite confident is that the Security Bill is likely to be the source to channel the junta’s power and control in the upcoming years. Likewise, don’t be surprised if generals are invited to sit as board members of several goverment enterprise. Being professional army alone and free from politic would be tough. The political and business worlds are too inviting, huh?

Filed under: Political Sciences

Plane Crash and Fastness of Airline Industry.

The crash was probably due to poor compliances of budget airliners, according to New York Times here:

Orient Thai airlines, the international arm of One-Two-GO, was warned about its safety procedures last year.

South Korea’s Ministry of Construction and Transportation issued a warning in March 2006 to Orient Thai and two other budget carriers for “frequent delays and substandard safety measures,” according to the Korea Times newspaper.

The ministry said that Orient Thai, which operated flights from Inchon, South Korea to Bangkok and Phuket, did not update its safety and operational regulation manuals and that fire extinguishers and oxygen tanks were not in working condition.

“We ordered the carriers to improve the detected items,” the Korea Times quoted an official saying.

In October 2004, a Boeing 747-200 operated by Orient Thai came within 200 meters of the Tokyo Tower while making its final approach to the city’s Haneda Airport, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

I was trying to guess what make those planes crash while they were landing. One of reasons I could think about was the growing demand to be strictly on time to be qualify for quality audition.

It is a small reason. Airline industries need to compete with each other and with standards. Every airline want to be on time. Being late upset the whole schedules of passengers and other airline sharing the same airport. Canceling a flight often, then the reputation goes down trhough word of mouth negative PR.

These days, it is important to be timely. Too early, you spend hours in an uncomfortable airport. Too late, you miss series of important appointment and it would be extremely upsetting.

I guess, and my small insignificant guess, is that beside bad weather, pilots are nervous to get the plane landed on time and he was probably sure that he can handle the landing rather than circling to wait for better conditions to land and be reported for delay, which would affect the overall performance under and audition. Timeliness is also important, particularly to budget airlines which relies on rotation of flights. not the number of planes in their fleets to switch.

In an industry that no one will praise slowness, timely or to prevent any severe lateness could result in a tragic accident. Yet, people take a flight because they want to rapidly get to a destination which is very necessary important and convinient. When technologies make the flights save enough in the air, now more technologies for the ssfe landing might be needed.

Oh, how I miss the slow cradle of sleeper train.

Filed under: Something To Remember

At the end of Anti-Communism, what a right time to utter.

I read with amusement at the comment of using Maoist strategy to tame the nation. Had it been the anti communism era, at the public endorsement of Mao, would land someone to be re-trained and reoriented to be faithful to democratic system. All the Maoish stuffs had to be underground and utter with a shhhhh….

Any person who like neo communism as fashion (check out the Mao outfits and stuff) could have been arrested and detained. A public comment about Mao’s excel in combat and political would be a down fall, particularly to a general.

The country had learned that suppressing freedom of expression under the former military regime did not ensure long lasting stability. The country learned to tolerate some degree of differences in faith, ideologies and beliefs. What could not be uttered decades ago, or could be subtly did so at the higher price to say, now can be said under principles of tolerances and freedom of expression.

Obviously, the generals might not appreciate what people or bloggers have been ranting on the internet. On the other hand, without freedom of expression, some of them might not be able to talk about Mao in front of microphone and tape recorders.

The Computer/Cyber Crime laws is now similar to the anti communist activities law, it is not an enabling law to foster growth by suppressing people and force them to be smarter by going underground. It is even harder to suppress all cyber space activities than to curb pro-communist flyers and propaganda in the past. The cat and mouse chase would be more complex as people played by the loopholes and advancing technologies.

People need certain degree of freedom of expression, being CNS members or general bloggers. If a person should not be judged as pro-communism by citing Mao, the other should not be labeled threats of security by citing Thaksin or criticizing CNS and vice versa. Then we can achieve reconciliation through tolerance, not suppression.

Filed under: Free speech, Political Sciences, Something To Remember

Now you have alternative security after thoughts

I thought I heard about this book Militia Redux by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson and was too busy locating it despite CU book is several BTS station away. While doing my regular monitoring search, I also find a review about Or.Sor. and paramilitary forces. I will quicky post the review and come up with some notes.

Southeast Asia
May 11, 2007

BOOK REVIEW
Arm thy neighbor
Militia Redux by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson

Reviewed by Bertil Lintner

Thailand has for decades armed a bewildering array of paramilitary forces and volunteer corps, which were set up mainly during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s to secure the country’s borders against possible communist infiltration.

They grew in importance when the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) resorted to armed struggle against the government in 1965

and left-wing forces were making headway in the region.

Today, Thailand’s communist insurgency is history, but the old paramilitary units remain, with a new purpose: to help maintain security along the still-volatile Thailand-Myanmar border, which includes fighting drug and human trafficking – and, more controversially, to suppress an increasingly active and militant insurgent movement in the Muslim-dominated southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson, two Australian academics, have written the first in-depth English-language account of these forces, and Militia Redux is an impressively detailed study of a little-known but significant subject in Thai history and contemporary politics. They track the origin of Thailand’s paramilitary forces back to the Wild Tiger Corps, which was established by King Vajiravuth in 1911.

Then the king’s personal force, it became a nationwide phenomenon when on February 4, 1954, the Thai Parliament passed the Defense Corps Act. Six days later, the present Thai king, His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej, signed the act, and now February 10 is celebrated annually as the founding date of what is commonly known as Or Sor (also transliterated Aw Saw), the Thai abbreviation for asa samak, or “volunteers”. The proper full name of the force is Kong Asa Raksa Dindaen, or the Volunteer Defense Corps.

It is not a huge force – the approved strength for 2006 was 15,727 men and women – and not as numerous as other volunteer forces such as Self-Defense Volunteers, or Chor Ror Bor (Chaw Raw Baw), which are particularly active in the southern provinces. But Or Sor is in many respects the core of the paramilitary militias, and perhaps the most professional.

They played an important role in the crucial battle of the CPT’s military headquarters at Khao Khaw, Phetchabun province, in February-March 1981, which marked the beginning of the end of communist insurgency in Thailand, and they were active along the eastern border in the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees were encamped on Thai soil.

And, like most of Thailand’s paramilitary forces, they were initially trained and partly funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency. But Or Sor was never as controversial as some of the extreme right-wing forces, which became notorious for their brutality in the 1970s. Among those were the Red Gaurs, Krathing Daeng (the authors misspell it Kraching Daeng), which spearheaded the attack on student protesters in Bangkok’s Thammasat University on October 6, 1976, or the Nawaphon, which also played a leading part on the bloody events on that day.

Ball and Mathieson examine the history of Thai paramilitarism, the management of the forces, and their various roles and activities, and they do it well. The book is factual and analytical with lots of explanatory tables and illustrations; one of the few mistakes this reader came across was the misidentification of the location of Krue Se Mosque, where 32 militants were killed on April 28, 2004, as Yala province; it is in Pattani province. And despite allegations of human-rights abuses, the authors point out that most Or Sor members are residents of the local areas, and therefore familiar with their localities, giving them “a natural advantage over government officials in collecting information”.

An interesting detail is that the Thai king’s autistic grandson, Khun Poom Jensen, enlisted into Or Sor ranks in Nakhon Pathom province when he turned 20 in 2003. He had actually wanted to join the regular army, but his disability made this impractical, and he is quoted saying he was “very happy” to join the Or Sor. Khun Poom was killed by the tsunami on December 26, 2004, while vacationing with his mother, Princess Ubol Ratana Rajakanya, at a seaside resort north of Phuket. After his death, a small shrine was maintained in his honor for 100 days outside the Or Sor headquarters on Bangkok’s Phaholyohtin Road. His portrait still hangs there, and his membership in the Or Sor gave the force a royal link that it would otherwise not have.

Some may argue that the authors overemphasize the revival of paramilitarism in Thailand. After all, Or Sor actually had 5,000 more members in 1999 that it has today. But it is in the south that the largest, and still growing, units are active. In May 2003, there were 654 Or Sor in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat; in February 2004, it was announced that the total would be brought up to 1,900. And that is also where most abuses appear to be taking place, not only by Or Sor but even more so by the Chor Ror Bor, which is dominated by Buddhists in a predominantly Muslim area.

The authors’ conclusion is that Thailand should abolish its paramilitary forces, and let the professional, and better trained and equipped regular army take care of security in all sensitive areas. The return of paramilitarism is not in tune with the modern society that Thailand purports to be, and volunteer forces such as Or Sor can be easily exploited by local thugs and strongmen, the authors argue.

They also suggest that Thailand’s Ministry of Interior – which controls the Or Sor – should be dissolved to “allow the propagation of alternative forms of real provincial, district and village democracy, with much greater decentralization of administrative authority”. Some advanced Western countries – among them Sweden – have replaced their interior ministries with more focused governmental departments in charge of local administration, education and similar tasks.

But is Thailand ready for such a bold reform? Suchit Bunbongkarn, a prominent Thai academic and legal expert who wrote a foreword to this book, disagrees by arguing that the Ministry of Interior serves “as a bridge between the central administration and democratic local governments”. He also writes that this book is “well worth reading, and for those interested in political violence, paramilitarism, internal security, and democratic development in Thailand, it must not be missed”.

This reviewer could not agree more.

Militia Redux: Or Sor and the Revival of Paramilitarism in Thailand by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson. White Lotus Ltd. Bangkok 2007. Price US$35.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review. He is currently a writer with Asia-Pacific Media Services.

(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. )

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IE11Ae01.html

It wouldn’t be surprise that the more Or.Sor and CHor.Ror.Bor. in the South are ethnic malay and they will be deployed to reduce casualties for professional military. They were quickly trained, less paid and have less mantainance cost. By the way, the people will not like rangers, Or.Sor or Chor.Ror Bor. when they don’t have to adhere to professional military code of ethic and field operation manual. Rangers are effective because they are trained to do the job like private security companies. Much do I like this review, I think they will stay for a long time.

Filed under: Security

Doctor’s Perspective and Post Cold War Warfare

I rarely posted about book review as I am not even capable enough of publishing or aired my view correctly, being in several advance literature reading and review writing courses for non-literature major.

In this book by Michael Ondaatje, I lately reread again, blending context of the story to the context of what I read and reexperience of here and there, in the location of uncertainty as I am both outsider to here, being a somewhere mid-west in thailand and there as a tourist in Sri Lanka.

What capture me this time is not Anil, a forensic anthropologist that came for an assignment from Geneve to prove that the government participated, either by conducting, misconductivity or negligence, in massive murder and disapperance that leave fresh woundsand unhealed scars in personal and natonal memory. I was more interested in Gamini, a doctor who treated insurgences, government officers, military officers and civilans alike, Ondaatje described:

The doctors were coping with injuries from all political sides and there was one operating table. [...] The most frequently seen problems were snakebites, rabies caused by fox or ongoose. kidney failure, encephalitis, diabetes, tuberculosis and the was. (Anil’s Ghost: 243)

Despite its passionately generalized and manufactured the extreme south (i.e. north-south) in conflict to fit readers’ consumption to easily understand and give shared compassion how bad limited low intensity welfare hurt people and poor nation (not to mention international arms trade, where money do not go into ‘the poor’s pocket’ whether it is balck, gray or white), the novel, like doctors, did not specify or simplified that government is oppressive or freedom fighters romanticized. There are reasons for people who contended to be bystanders and did not act to prevent anything bad from happening, there are people to burn for a cause. There are freedom fighters and government sympathizers, both actual and perceived. Ondaatje argued wasn’t clear if “Geneva” will do anything when they, those people from the West, come in, took note and filmed, wrote report and go home, when informants will have to stay. Anil was too exotic.

While most people now addressing the unforseen causes, various and rather universal causes which one of them cannot be more truth than the other, yet many try to find such formulae to the conflicts, the other are addressing deadly consequences from all sides. It is useless to ask why or who did it on operation tables. All identities set aside, for now. I am wondering if docotr would collect data segregated by religion in their records.

One thing I am sure, they will not claim who is perpetrators like newspaper guess-who analysis, finger pointing assumption of miltary press conference and information divulge to human rights defenders. We still need to know, but it is ok if we do not, for now.

Filed under: Security